The HBHL community has continued to work creatively and strategically to meet research targets despite limited resources and facility access resulting from renewed cautionary restrictions implemented to stem the spread of the SARS-CoV2 Omicron variant.
Many members of our community continue to experience isolation and to face challenges visiting friends and family safely. We remain committed to supporting the safety, wellbeing and inclusion of the most vulnerable members of the HBHL community.
Internationally, the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Ukraine has been directly impacting many members of our community. HBHL and McGill stand with Universities Canada in condemning the invasion of the free, independent and democratic nation of Ukraine.
In Canada, Indigenous-led initiatives continue to identify and repatriate the remains of residential school victims. HBHL stands with all Indigenous Peoples and families who continue to suffer from the genocidal legacy of Canada’s residential school system.
To stay transparent and accountable for our equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) commitments and initiatives, we will continue to provide regular semesterly progress updates to members of the HBHL community.
Indigenous Paid Mentorship Program
HBHL is pleased to announce the launch of a paid mentorship program for Indigenous post-secondary students interested in neuroscience. The inaugural session, which began this month (June, 2022), was offered in collaboration with McGill’s Branches Community Outreach team. This initiative is called the Indigenous Mentorship and Paid Research Experience for Summer Students (IMPRESS). This initiative would not be possible without the support of HBHL PIs and their labs.
The student participants are working directly with participating HBHL labs on one of four different neuroscience projects. Upon completion, they will have had hands-on experience working in labs, received training across a variety of relevant skill sets, gained familiarity with neuroscience at McGill and made connections with PIs, postdocs and grad students. We hope students leave this program feeling empowered and equipped with the tools they need to continue their academic interests and pursue graduate studies in neuroscience if that is their goal.
Program Details
- Student participants each receive a stipend of $6,000, are assigned to a lab based on their interests and the lab’s needs and are paired with a graduate student mentor, most of whom identify as Indigenous themselves.
- Participants work in a lab 15 hours a week for 10 weeks.
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Training
HBHL has hosted a total of 10 EDI-related training events to date—three since the previous reporting year. HBHL is also aiming to embed EDI-related events into its regular event programming to take advantage of the broader audience in attendance and reach a larger number of participants. Notably, HBHL’s 2022 Symposium featured a workshop on EDI in Research and Grant Proposals, co-led by Dr. Uzma Jamil, McGill’s Senior Research Equity Advisor and HBHL’s Managing Director, Krystle van Hoof.
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Recruitment and retention
While HBHL continues to support the recruitment of new faculty members who identify as members of equity-seeking groups through its New Recruit Start-Up Supplements Program, HBHL also recognizes the need to support the integration of these individuals into the local research context. Without proper mentorship and integration, individuals brought into an environment where they are part of an underrepresented group can be put at a disadvantage if the system that caused these groups to be underrepresented is not also adapted. Therefore, HBHL has implemented a requirement for hiring units applying for Start-Up Supplement funding to provide a concrete mentorship plan for the new recruit they aim to hire, including naming a specific individual as a mentor.
HBHL also launched a new speaker series entitled “Neurogenesis.” This series pairs two HBHL new recruits with complementary interests to present their research as part of a short seminar followed by an informal get-together with the aim of better integrating these new faculty recruits into the McGill community. The series debuted this spring, and two seminars have been held to date.
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Governance
Over the last fiscal year, HBHL has reworked its committee responsibilities. One goal of these adjustments was to delineate responsibilities more clearly. An added benefit of this shift is that responsibility for the EDI Action Plan now falls under HBHL’s Strategic Steering Committee with support from the EDI Committee—which puts more institutional clout behind its implementation given the SSC membership includes senior university leadership.
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Priorities for the next six months
Climate Survey
HBHL is conducting its second biennial Climate Survey. This anonymous survey is used to inform HBHL’s equity, diversity and inclusion strategy by helping to gauge the demographic profile of HBHL participants and their experiences in the academic environment.
All survey response data is anonymous and confidential. It will be accessible by only three members of HBHL staff and only for the purposes of improving our actions to improve EDI. Aggregated data will be shared publicly in our reporting to maximize transparency; however, any data derived from a group of fewer than five people will not be shared alongside any demographic information to ensure anonymity.
HBHL continues to work towards its goal of acting as a leader in EDI at McGill and beyond, facilitating action at the institutional level and serving as a model for future interdisciplinary research initiatives. We acknowledge that there is still a lot of work to be done and welcome feedback, questions and suggestions for how we can do more and better.
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